Bubblehead

My children woke up before the alarm went off this morning. All three of them were up by 0630. What the?! Have they met me? Do they hate me? Eh, it was just as well; I couldn't sleep, either.

I ended up watching Nights in Rodanthe last night, but not knitting. It was good. I cried when it was over, in Rob's arms. "Cried" being an understatement. But I don't want to tell you why, because it would obviously spoil the whole thing. I just love Richard Gere. I like crow's feet on a man. Fortunately, Rob has plenty. Tee-hee.

I would have knit, but my knitting bag was by the front door, and I didn't realize that until I was already comfortably settled and bundled up on the couch. Seeing as I am considerably lazy, I didn't want to get up again to get it.  For once, I just sat and watched the boob tube without doing a second thing. I never do that. It was kind of cozy.

As cozy as it can get when it's absolutely freezing, anyway. I could not get warm. It was about 19º, and our house is no different than any other location: warm air rises; cold air sinks. We have a sunken living room, and it is umpteen degrees chillier down there than in the office, which by turn is cooler than our bedroom.  So I opted to pull myself up off the couch, post-movie, and go to bed. I didn't realize why Rob chose to stay downstairs on the couch until I went to our room and discovered half the contents of his closet spread all over his side of the bed!!

I slept fitfully until the wee ones woke up in the wee hours.

We all headed downstairs and had breakfast. I opted for a too-carb-heavy bowl of hot oatmeal with Splenda and cinnamon, but I didn't "dump." The Bigs were packed off and sent on their way, and then Sophia and I settled down on the couch for a snug and a book. We read and then turned on PBS Kids for some Curious George and Sid the Science Kid (ugh). Before I knew it, she was dozing. I thought about it for two seconds before deciding to join my baby in slumber. Ahh. Sweetness.

It didn't last long at all, but it was a nice little snoozy.  Then we played with the stuff from the Prize bucket and read more of the books. I don't really care for that "When Sophie Gets Angry" title. It seems to condone having a screaming, stomping temper tantrum and then tell the kid to run far, far away to calm down. Huh? I'm going to let my small child run loose in the woods?  Whatever. The pictures are nice, though.

Jack came home, and they had lunch. I tried to put them down for naps, and they went. But after a time, it became evident that naps were not going to happen today. I found them both up in the top bunk, climbing all over each other like puppies, giggling away. I just stood there in the doorway until they noticed me. Finally, the reaction I expected: two little blonde deer caught in the headlights. Hehe.

I set Jackie to the task of cleaning his room (to his major dismay; he hates doing anything by himself) and hauled Sophia into my room so I could shower. Then I began the arduous task of tackling the Laundry Monster. Rob had taken over the job of washing the clothes, but today I decided to take it back.  I have a feeling our water bill will go back down, too - IMO, he doesn't wash a full load. Bet me. We'll see.

So I spent several hours (yes!) folding laundry and washing and drying more, waiting for Curly Girl to get home from school and Rob to get home from work. Turns out, though, that he had a meeting and couldn't come home. Argh. So we missed dance class, which makes me peevish, as much as we pay for those lessons.

Finally, it seemed, the Littles needed - no, wanted - their rest. So I put them in their rooms, and both of them were instantly out like a light. Whew! Chloë and I went downstairs to keep things quiet and start her homework.  I cleaned up a little in the office while helping her with her math.

Usually, my frustration with her doing her math homework escalates, and at least one of us ends up in tears. It is just not a good situation. Today, I insisted to myself on remaining calm, and showing her new ways to tackle the problems she kept getting wrong.  She, in turn, also remained calm, and pleasant, and actually seemed to understand what I was showing her. Then she completed the rest of the paper and got all the problems correct! Obviously, calmness is a better teaching tactic than, well, anything else, but I actually enjoyed helping her today. I just need to practice yoga before homework time...

Then came Jack. His homework was to practice writing the numbers 0-25 in his notebook. I told him I was going to give him his notebook and then send him into the kitchen to try doing it on  his own. I just wanted to see how well he could do without me. Well, he cried and carried on about having to do it by himself, and I considered sending him back upstairs for more nap! Seriously, he needs his hand held all the time. But I prevailed, and into the kitchen he went.

He wrote beautiful numbers up through "13" and then got stuck. But we figured it out, and he was grateful for the help. I was surprised, since he's done so well with his numbers in the past and counts to 100 on a regular basis.  No more resting on our laurels, though; we shall practice and practice on our own. This is going to be a hardworking, long summer for them, I can see!

ANYway.

So Rob finally came home, and I sent him out to get me some steamed shrimp. I was craving meat. I'm always wanting meat. I'd had enough of shakes, cheese, hummus, yogurt, etc. I wanted FLESH. Gawd, that sounds horrific. Ew. But he came home with a ring of frozen shrimp, and I wanted to cry.  I was hungry NOW.

I had another shake while he thawed the shrimp, and I worked on more laundry. Then Chloë and I got to work packing everything for her commercial tomorrow. We had to bring a load of stuffed animals, a family picture (I chose one of her and her grandmother, since obviously one with her parents wouldn't match the actors in the commercial), and other knickknacks from her room. We didn't really find any, though, so they'll have to deal with that. Then the clothes. We chose two sets of cute jammies for the bedtime spot. Three jeans-and-shirts outfits for the refrigerator spot (I hope I'll be able to see these and show them to you somehow, at some point). Tons and tons of tank tops and shorts, along with winter outerwear, for the thermostat spot.

Jack and Sophia were SO confused. Here I was, packing all kinds of clothes - and jammies! which means overnight! - for Chloë, but nothing for them in the suitcase. And she brought books and toys and ... what about them? Where were we going? Where were they going to be? What about Daddy? What on earth is going on here??!  I kept answering the same questions over and over, but I still don't think they get it. Poor kids.  Hopefully it'll make sense for them tomorrow.

Our last task is to bring rechargeable devices that blink in the dark, for the bedroom spot. But I can't think of anything that blinks! My iPod doesn't, nor does my cell phone. My Palm screen flashes on, so I'll offer that, but does anyone else have any further suggestions? I mean, we have plenty of things that plug in, but not that flash in the dark. None that I want to lug two hours north, anyway...! 

So I'm going to go walk on the treadmill. I never did last night.  If you think of anything, please comment tonight!

Fin.